AI

The game of large language model leapfrog looks to be speeding up, if that’s even possible, as Meta Platforms, Elon Musk’s xAI, Microsoft, Stability AI and of course OpenAI all weighed in this week with new models of various kinds.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that the potential negative impacts of this race are worrying more people, and prompting everything from legislation to safety benchmarks. Given the battle of the LLM giants, it’s also no surprise to see the also-rans gathering to present alternative pieces of the AI stack so they don’t get left out.

Meantime — broken record here — the funding frenzy continues, as Microsoft locks up the UAE’s G42 and Mistral reportedly seeks funding at a $5 billion valuation.

Big bucks flowed from the CHIPS Act this week too, some to Samsung and Micron reportedly next. Also on the semiconductor front, Intel showed off neuromorphic chip system to challenge Nvidia graphics chips and new high-NA EUV system from ASML — though both are years in the future.

Not least, Google scrambled the deck chairs this week, reorganizing its Android and Chrome platform and devices teams and also its AI teams. It also fired protesters against its joint Project Nimbus with Microsoft selling cloud services to Israel, on top of its second set of layoffs this year.

You can hear more about this and other news on the latest installment of theCUBE Pod from John Furrier and Dave Vellante, out late Thursday on YouTube. It was recorded from SAS Innovate, the veteran company’s annual event in Las Vegas, where they delved into issues such as AI trust. Don’t miss Vellante’s weekly deep dive, Breaking Analysis, coming this weekend.

And next week look for a big earnings week with reports from IBM, Alphabet, Microsoft, Intel, Meta and more.

Here’s the most important news this week from SiliconANGLE and beyond:

AI prompts more safety worries, and responses

AI is becoming more powerful and more expensive, and people are getting nervous

MLCommons announces first benchmark for assessing AI safety

Five new members added to the US AI Safety Institute, including an AI ‘doomer’

Landmark UK law would criminalize making sexualized deepfakes even if they aren’t shared

Linux Foundation, Intel and others promote open-source data stacks for enterprise generative AI Hmm, a strike against the current leaders in AI such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, Cohere? We’ll see how far this can go, but it’s a heavy lift.

National AI Advisory Committee seeks to head off disruption as use of AI expands

A thoughtful corrective on generative AI from Molly White: AI isn’t useless. But is it worth it?

New models and services

Meta debuts next-generation Llama 3 LLM series and new chatbot features

Microsoft’s new VASA-1 AI framework generates super-realistic talking heads that can even sing songs

Langdock reels in $3M for its LLM-agnostic enterprise chatbot

ChatGPT-4 impresses on ophthalmology exam, pointing to future triage use

Stable Diffusion 3 now available via API providing access to developers

Elon Musk-backed xAI debuts its first multimodal model, Grok-1.5V

Amazon Bedrock adds Anthropic’s Claude 3 family and Mistral Large

Kore.ai boosts enterprise generative AI development platform with new RAG and automation features

OpenAI opens Tokyo office and debuts custom GPT-4 version for Japan

Slack’s new generative AI features now available for all paid customers

Adobe plans generative AI video editing tools for Premiere Pro

Pegasystems offers every worker access to a personalized, generative AI-powered coach

SAS Institute debuts its first generative AI assistants, plus tools to help companies build their own

And analysis from the SAS Innovate conference: Exploring SAS’ vision for industry-specific AI integration and enhanced decision-making: Key insights from theCUBE Research and Beyond AI washing: theCUBE analyzes real-world integration of AI in legacy systems (Disclosure: SAS sponsored theCUBE’s presence at the event. SiliconANGLE’s coverage of the news is independent.)

With $22M investment, NeuBird is building a generative AI solution for complex cloud-native environments (from TechCrunch)

Dataminr launches ReGenAI to enhance real-time event analysis with generative AI

Stravito launches AI assistant for enhanced data-driven decision making

Open-source vector database Qdrant launches hybrid cloud for enterprise AI apps

GitLab announces general availability Duo Chat AI chatbot for DevSecOps

Fundings

Microsoft invests $1.5B in UAE-based AI company G42

Open-source LLM startup Mistral AI reportedly seeking new funding at $5B valuation

Document AI startup Upstage raises $72M for global expansion

Around the enterprise

Samsung wins $6.4B in CHIPS Act funding for Texas semiconductor complex

Pat Gelsinger is lighting a fire under Intel, but these are still years away:

Intel unveils brain-inspired neuromorphic chip system for more energy-efficient AI workloads

Intel completes assembly of world’s most advanced EUV lithography system

AMD and Nvidia unveil new processors for AI PCs

TSMC beats first-quarter revenue and profit expectations on strong AI chip demand (from CNBC)

Chip gear giant ASML misses Q1 sales goal, offers soft outlook (from Investors Business Daily)

Broadcom questioned by EU over VMware licensing changes (from Reuters)

VMware SKU simplification: Impact and insights for enterprise customers

Google Cloud joins with biotech startups to accelerate AI-driven drug discovery and scientific research

Akamai expands cloud services with dedicated GPUs for media workloads

Rivos raises $250M+ to develop chips for AI and analytics workloads

Loft Labs secures $24M in new funding to expand Kubernetes tools and team

BMC ups observability game with planned Netreo acquisition (from CRN)

Kong expands API gateway availability on AWS with new dedicated cloud gateway

Cyabra exposes disinformation campaign on X targeting Intel’s stock price

Cyber beat

Fundings and M&A

Cybersecurity firm Wiz reportedly in talks to buy Lacework for $150M-$200M

Armis acquires vulnerability prioritization startup Silk Security in $150M deal

Akamai reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Noname Security for $500M

Anvilogic closes $45M Series C round to enable security data lakes in the security operations center

Cynomi raises $20M for AI-powered virtual cybersecurity officer solution for providers

Vorlon raises $15.7M to tackle third-party API risks

Israeli startup Miggo Security raises $7.5M for application detection and response platform

Sorenson Capital leads $7.95M seed investment in cyberthreat intelligence provider VulnCheck

New services

Cisco unveils Hypershield to enhance security across data centers and cloud platforms

Red Hat updates Trusted Software Supply Chain to enhance early security integration

New Tanium Automate offers automated insights for endpoint security

New open-source tool from Permiso aims to simplify AWS console event analysis

New attacks (and shutdowns)

Mandiant links Russia’s Sandworm hacking group to water infrastructure breaches

UnitedHealth investigating reported leak of data from its Change Healthcare unit

Researchers warn updated Cerber ransomware is targeting critical Confluence vulnerability

Europol-led task force shuts down LabHost phishing platform, arrests suspected hackers

Report finds bad bots accounted for 32% of all internet traffic in 2023

Elsewhere in tech

Boston Dynamics revamps its humanoid robot Atlas with electric motors

Uber- and Nvidia-backed Serve Robotics ends Nasdaq debut down 22%

EY launches blockchain-based business contract management solution on Ethereum

Aptos Labs collaborates with Microsoft, SK Telecom on institutional blockchain platform

Comings and goings

Google announces its second major round of layoffs this year And that’s not all: Google fires 28 workers over sit-in protesting its business ties with Israel

And as if that weren’t enough: Google announces huge company shakeup to ensure it remains at forefront of AI development

Stability AI to lay off 10% of its staff in wake of CEO’s resignation

Tesla lays off 10% of its workforce amid demand slowdown

Generative AI startup Tome lays off 12 of its 59 employees (from The Information)

Former AWS and VMware executive Eric Benson is data integration provider Matillion’s new chief revenue officer.

Leaving the Nasdaq: 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki plans to take company private (from the Wall Street Journal)

Leaving the highway: Amazon cloud unit kills Snowmobile data transfer truck eight years after driving 18-wheeler onstage Seeing that huge thing drive noisily into the re:Invent conference hall in Vegas is something I’ll never forget. But… bits>atoms.

What’s next

Earnings season kicks in next week: 

April 23: Tesla and Seagate

April 24: IBM, Meta and ServiceNow

April 25: Alphabet, Microsoft, Intel, Snap, Check Point Software, Mobileye, Juniper and Pegasystems

Plenty of events coming up in a couple of weeks:

What to expect at Red Hat Summit: Join theCUBE May 6-8

What to expect during the RSA Conference: Join theCUBE May 6-9

Boomi World: Join theCUBE May 8-9

Google I/O, May 14: We’ll be there for all the news.

Image: SiliconANGLE